LT

Apr 16, 2025

1 star is too generous for HML

I'm a tenant who has just moved out of a flat rented between 2019 – 2025 with a private agency but was managed by HML. Since June 2020 the roof has been leaking and 5 years later it still hasn't been fixed. Every instance of leaking, a third party contractor is sent to look at damage, agree that it's in a dire state and then HML never resolve. Repeat for 5 years. What could have been a simple fix at the time, has now turned into a mammoth project as the property has deteriorated so much. We were full of dread every time it rained that more water would come in, causing more damage. Our ceilings and walls were damp, cracked and stained and carpets stained. It’s as if water coming in through multiple light fittings in your home isn’t enough of a danger/reason to resolve the matter at all, let alone with any urgency?! When HML have sent contractors to the property, it was for completely unrelated works which were totally unnecessary and gave no warning that someone was attending (even though 24 hours’ notice is legally required) and sometimes even let themselves in with a key!! In the last few months, I had stone masons looking back at me through the window after entering unannounced, and on countless occasions, had a living room FULL of rubble and debris from someone unknowingly turning up to tinker with the chimney. It seems as though HML avoided fixing what was actually necessary and urgent by wasting time looking at every other part of the building. Letting agents never got an answer from them and even recommended contacting HML ourselves to which no answer was received either. On the one occasion I eventually got a contact at HML, I was lied to about them being on annual leave (seemingly avoiding my questions), and then they would not speak to me under GDPR?? As the tenant who lived at the flat?? Even though permission was given by the letting agent?? 4 years in to the mess, we thought we’d turned a corner, as HML instructed scaffolding to go up at the property. This was left up for a whole year, with no one going up on it to complete repairs, and then one day when we arrived home, it had been taken down, again, without warning – before any repairs had been undertaken – what was the point in that? The cherry on the cake is that HML were however very quick to intimidate and threaten us with legal action when we were “breaching agreement”, despite them leaving tenants in an unsafe home that was literally crumbling for several years (after being advised countless times to fix it) – something I’m sure legal professionals would love to hear about. I dread to think what kind of emergency would need to happen for HML to actually do anything to help. HML would not pee on you if you were on fire, and the feeling is entirely mutual after years of nothing but grief. Why anyone would hire them to look after their property is absolutely beyond me. HML, please don't bother replying to this review telling me to contact your customer help email address as you have done with other negative reviews, as I can guarantee in true HML fashion this would never be responded to either.